Saturday January 19, 2013

China singles hire dates to bring home for CNY

● Other News & Views is compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with this ' >'sign, it denotes a separate news item.

SINGLE men and women who are going home for Chinese New Year in mainland China have resorted to hiring girlfriends or boyfriends to avoid being pressured to settle down.

This had led to the emergence of an online business where people were offering themselves for rent with rates starting from 600 yuan (RM291) a day, Kwong Wah Yit Poh reported.

The hirer is expected to pay for other expenses such as food, accommodation and transport.

For instance, the hourly rate to accompany the person for shopping was 30 yuan (RM15), dining (50 yuan or RM24), with the hirer footing the bill, and a movie date (30 yuan). The charges would be doubled for a horror movie.

A polite kiss would cost 50 yuan. A hug or a goodbye kiss was free of charge, so was holding hands.

In most cases, sex was out of the question.

> The daily also reported that the family of Datin Wong Mew Choo has denied that she was pregnant with her first child with badminton World No 1 Datuk Lee Chong Wei.

Apparently, an elder sister of Wong had commented that she had no idea whether Wong was pregnant.

The grand wedding of Wong and Lee took place in November last year.

The couple had indicated in previous interviews that they hoped to start a family soon.

> China Press reported that a 61-year-old traditional Chinese medical practitioner has been accused of molesting his 54-year-old client during treatment in Singapore.

He pleaded not guilty to the charges. However, he had earlier written a “confession” letter in which he blamed himself for using acupuncture needles which made her unable to resist the molestation.

During the trial, the man changed his story again. He claimed that the client, who was unaccompanied by the usual nurse, was wrapped in a towel and wearing just her underwear during one of the treatment sessions in December 2009.

He also claimed that he was wearing gloves and that his hands had accidentally touched her private parts while performing treatment at her hips and groin area.